Keeping the Momentum

by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

Following on from Jim's great post yesterday, I thought I would write about 'momentum' in a novel. Having just finished the revised draft of my latest WIP (just sent it through cyberspace to my beta readers for input yesterday!), I have been looking closely at the issue of momentum as part of the editing process.  


By 'momentum' I mean the way in which the novel moves and progresses so that a reader desperately wants to keep turning the pages. It requires a balance between conflict and suspense, exposition and relationship development (and these are by no means mutually exclusive). The reason momentum has been on my mind of late is that I have recently read  three YA books that lost steam about half to three-quarters of the way through and I couldn't understand why. They were all the kind of books that gripped me from the start and had me turning pages enthusiastically until...I wasn't anymore. 


And it was more than just 'mid book sag' it was a total loss of momentum and it had me puzzled - how, when the authors clearly had great conflict and suspense and terrific pacing for the first half the book did the they manage to lose that initial head of steam. 


It started me thinking - what went wrong? 


I came to the conclusion that there were three critical issues:


1. Predictability 


About half way through these books the threads started to come together and suddenly the way forward became predictable. As a reader I started to guess how it was going to progress from hereon and thus, the conflict and suspense factor faltered and never recovered. This demonstrates that when it comes to pacing an author must keep ratcheting up the stakes and keep things unpredictable. A surprised/shocked reader is going to read on - one that has guessed the ending is not.


2. The conflict/tension between the main characters was resolved too early 


Although the books I was reading were all YA this applies equally to mysteries and thrillers (in fact any novel!). All the authors I read did a fabulous job establishing initial conflict between the characters. The characters developed were complex and believable and above all, the tension and set up was really compelling. However, about half way through the book instead of this tension escalating or changing it merely morphed into immediate attraction and/or friendship and this meant the book started to fizzle rather than sizzle. When editing my own WIP, I kept this firmly in mind, so that no matter the growing attraction between the main characters that level of tension and conflict continued to increase (from both external and internal factors) so that a reader couldn't really be sure how it was all going to resolve. 


3. The authors wanted to resolve everything neatly and it showed  


I think this issue was more a question of mechanics and (as all three were debut novels) experience but about half way through the book I felt that the framework of the plot began to show through - devices were more evident and coincidence suddenly took the place of real suspense. It felt as though the authors, knowing the destination they were trying to reach, had put up road signs for the reader which meant the thrill of the ride was gone (to use a cliche!).


Having realized these three pitfalls, I found myself focusing on momentum as I edited my own work (trying not to fall into the same trap, which can be difficult I know). Given the book I was writing was a YA, I also closely studied books I felt really succeeded when it came to momentum (such as The Hunger Games) and tried to pinpoint what it was that kept me turning the pages. It all really came down to what Jim discussed yesterday - conflict & suspense. 


So what about you - how do you keep an eye on momentum in your own work? Where do you think authors fall down when a book loses its fizz?